Fearless!

What makes you nervous? Remember using the rotary dial phone? If so, you’re probably in a position to take advantage of senior discounts. Guys like me might remember being a teen and picking up the handset to call a particular girl for the first time, nervously intending to inquire about a possible date. Rotary phones added to the suspense and anxiety. Often there was a series of practice dialings of the number, chickening out, hanging up, rehearsing the opening line again and finally letting it ring. Despite the practice, your voice cracked after she said, “Hello.”

Now kids can opt for a quick text. Impersonal and no cracking voice, but they spare themselves much of the agony we had to endure. No painfully slow sound of the dial rewinding. No potential for the terror of a parent picking up. Nonetheless, we could not let the possible obstacles stop us. With heart pounding and hand trembling, either we completed the task, or forever wondered what might have been.

So why all the symptoms of fear when simply seeking a brief conversation with another human being? Why the sweaty palms, pounding heart, tingly skin and irregular breathing? After all, we’re not talking about facing the president or a major celebrity. Though very attractive, you consider this person nice enough, potentially accepting enough of you. At least enough to risk asking her out on a date. The worst that could happen is she says “No thanks” and maybe giggles a bit. Yes, rejection is tough. Or the conversation may actually result in a date, perhaps a lasting relationship, an eventual engagement, marriage and kids! Okay, maybe you have good reason to be nervous. There’s a lot on the line with this phone call! But with the exception of asking your future spouse out on a first date, it’s sort of ridiculous that we get so nervous and intimidated about talking to fellow humans.

Jesus knew that we might shy away from talking to people because we care too much about what they might think of us. In fact, He knew we might allow the fear of other people’s opinions to keep us from telling them about Him. He knew that when one found oneself in a situation where there might be a clear opportunity to speak up concerning one’s faith in Christ, one might opt to stay quiet, in effect denying Him when we could declare Him. In those situations, a choice to declare Him might cause symptoms akin to dialing the phone for that first date described earlier. We think we’ll be just fine whether we speak up or not. So why should we torture ourselves with the painful side effects of saying something? Well, it turns out there are worse things than humans thinking less of you for speaking up about your faith. There are more painful consequences than human rejection.

Because Jesus knew human nature so well and He knew people would tend to disavow Him, He gave us this warning: “…whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 10:33). Jesus and His followers were despised in the first century. One took one’s life into one’s hands if he or she did not deny Christ. Although we’re not quite at the point where standing for Christ in our country is a matter of life or death, we are seeing more overt rejections of Christ by larger factions of our society. Even in this historically Judeo-Christian nation, many believers are petrified at the thought of speaking out on behalf of the Savior.

Whose opinion do you value most? That is the question. We will ultimately answer to the One with whom we hope to spend eternity. People who hear our testimony about Him can hurl insults, arrest and even kill us, as in many parts of the world. However, only He holds sway over our eternal souls. I’ll go with Jesus when it comes to judging what I choose or don’t choose to say, sweaty palms and all! Besides, the upside is, for the one who doesn’t chicken out, He promised, “I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 10:32).  

“For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.”

—2 Timothy 1:12